Megaman X: Elysium Rising
Chapter 3: A New Home
By Genoscythe
Zero never knew how to act around X when he was feeling introspective, and he had been trying to figure it out for nearly a century. Sometimes X needed to talk, sometimes he needed to listen, and sometimes he needed to be left alone. The one constant during all of these moods was that he gave Zero no indication as to what he wanted. So Zero tried the only method that made him feel better.
"Sorry about Sylph, X," he said over a steaming cup of reploid coffee. The synthesized energy drink could have been substituted by simply loading a fresh power cell into the port on his back, but Zero would rather pretend to be drinking coffee instead. It tasted better, and it gave him an excuse to hang around and strike up a conversation with X. It wasn't always what X wanted, but at least it made Zero feel like he was being proactive.
"So am I," X replied, playing listlessly with the handle on his otherwise untouched coffee cup. "You should have heard the naïve crap I told her right before they blew her away."
"You didn't know that was gonna happen."
"But I should have honored my promises either way."
"The world doesn't always work like that, X. You know that."
"Doesn't make it any easier, though."
"Then stop thinking about it. What about Stinger? What happened to him?"
"I tracked him to an energy warehouse. One of the tanks went off during the fight, and he was vaporized."
"Did you check for a body?" Zero persisted, wanting just as much to learn of the Maverick leader's fate as he wanted to keep X's mind on tasks other than grieving over his own impotence.
"I doubt there would've been anything left of a body if I had cared to look," he replied. Normally Zero would have reprimanded X for not checking for a body, but he knew, in this kind of mood, X would latch onto any criticism and magnify it tenfold. Instead, he set his coffee down on the Hunter's lounge table and made another attempt at changing topics.
"Alia was worried about you."
"That doesn't surprise me."
"Have you seen her since you got back?"
"No, I was on my way to the command center when you stopped me."
"Well, if I'd known, I wouldn't have done it," Zero said with a chuckle. "Since comms have been down, she's gone a little stir crazy in here."
"Believe me, I know," X said as he stood up. Zero detected a fraction of a percent of mirth in his tone. "Has Douglas gotten any closer to solving the problem?" Zero laid back in his seat and took another swig of coffee.
"Guess who else is going stir crazy. Douglas didn't even know there was a problem he couldn't fix until two weeks ago."
"He must be taking it pretty hard."
"Yeah, the fact that shortwave still works is making it even worse."
"How so?"
"Ask him yourself – he said you're due for a tune-up soon too."
"I was hoping he'd forgotten," X admitted. He slid his coffee cup over to Zero. "I should check on Alia."
"I'll bet she's reported you MIA by now," Zero said, grinning. "Better make it fast. I'll show you the new 'recruit' tomorrow." X nodded, picked himself up, and walked unsteadily out of the lounge toward the command center. He decided, as he went, that it had been a mistake to leave his coffee untouched, and his energy deprivation made his limbs respond as though clogged with mud. He was wholly unprepared for the rotund little reploid that burst out of the command center to greet him, and before he knew it, Douglas had wrapped his thick fingers around X's buster arm.
"So? How was the concussion grenade program?" he asked excitedly. There was a gleam in his eyes bright enough to illuminate the entire hall.
"Douglas, I've been fighting Mavericks all night, I'm running on reserves, and you're trying to pull my arm off. Again. Can I have some space, please?" The small mechanic reluctantly let go of X's arm.
"Did you use it or not?" he prodded. "I knew I should have added it to the mission parameters. 'Test concussion grenade program.' It would have been simple."
"I tested it," X spoke quickly, hoping to avoid a Douglas meltdown. "I just don't have a report ready yet. It can wait until tomorrow."
"Not even a quick analysis?" Douglas persisted.
"It was great. I retired at least three Mavericks with it."
"I can't work with 'great.' There's no reference point. Great compared to what?"
"Douglas..." X moaned, burying his face in the couch of a thick white glove.
"Fine, fine. Give me that full report as soon as you can." As soon as Douglas finished speaking, he apparently lost all interest in the blue Maverick Hunter and walked past him without a hint of recognition. X tried to continue through the doorway to the command center, but he was assaulted again by a much more pleasing but no less manic form.
"X! Where were you? When the others came back without you...I didn't know what to think..." Alia rambled, having stopped herself just short of grabbing X by the shoulders and shaking him. He noticed behind her that Signas sat casually in his command chair, tipping his hat and raising an eyebrow as he caught X's attention.
"I...ran into problems. I don't want to talk about it now, but if you really want the details, I'll tell you tomorrow."
"If it bothers you, then you don't have to talk about it. I just can't stand not knowing what's happening with you."
"I know."
"I mean, I've been watching your back for years, and now...not that I watch your back," she added hastily, blushing. "But I try to look out for you, and now I can't..."
"I'm sorry, Alia. I wish I could promise you that I'd be safe, but I don't want to lie to you." The excitement drained from Alia's eyes, and X felt ashamed for wanting to remove the blush from her face. Any hint of her infatuation with him was a painful reminder that he wasn't ready to reciprocate, and he was trying to turn her away as gently as possible. Still, it wasn't easy for a reploid with such an acute sense of empathy, especially since a small part of him was ready to reciprocate.
"Don't be sorry, X. You didn't jam our communications. Ugh, I'm making this night even harder on you, aren't I?"
"No, I think I just need to recharge. Can we talk more tomorrow?"
"Of course." She smiled at him, and the uneasy sensation he got from her advances, like someone had lodged a baton in his mechanical guts, hit him in full force.
"See you tomorrow, Alia," he managed.
"Sweet dreams." She gave him a mocking salute, and he returned it, extracting a giggle from her thin lips. It was a joke that they sometimes played with each other in remembrance of Alia's first few weeks as a navigator. She was a nervous wreck, and as a result she would compulsively salute every time she talked to someone, even when she was off-duty. X had to remind her that he didn't stand on ceremony, but she still saluted after every one of their conversations, no matter how many times he told her. Finally, she managed to suppress the habit when she became more familiar with her job. She retained her nervousness, however, until the beginning of the Eurasia Crisis, where she was forced to either focus on her job or snap under the pressure.
X left her with Signas to wrap up their shifts for the night, and after a short elevator ride, he was walking down the halls of the 17th Division barracks, numbly approaching his room. It occurred to him that he hadn't gotten the chance to talk to the reploid Zero had captured during the battle, but he decided it would do the mercenary good to cool his heels for the rest of the night.
Then there was Alia. He was genuinely looking forward to meeting with her, but the tightrope he had to walk every time they spoke somewhat dulled the pleasure of her company. He resolved to send Douglas his report over the 'net, as there was nothing in his company X found pleasurable, particularly his obsession with X's design. The first time he met the little mechanic, they were discussing the armor program he was able to salvage after the 4th Maverick War. In the middle of their conversation, X noticed Douglas had begun to take apart his buster arm. When prompted for an explanation, Douglas ignored him and left the room. It would not be the last time he would attempt to disassemble X's buster without the Hunter's permission, and X quickly developed a tendency to cover his right arm when Douglas was nearby.
X moved to his bed, but decided he needed a more complete recharge. He turned to the recovery capsule built into the wall and opened it, laying back against the cushioned seat and sealing the capsule shut.
"So X retired Vulcan Stinger?" Axl asked Zero as they walked down the corridor leading to the balcony at the far end of Special Unit 0's barracks.
"X thinks he retired him," Zero replied. "There's a bigger difference than you might think. We were pretty damn sure we killed Sigma, and look how that turned out."
"Okay, but still. If we're pretty sure Stinger's been retired, then why do we need Mr. Smart-mouth?"
"You were making such progress, Axl," Zero reprimanded. "Has it occurred to you that he might want to join us?" The young hunter let out a bitter chuckle.
"You're joking, right?" he asked. Zero fixed him with a withering glare, and Axl instinctively shrunk back.
"If he does, maybe you two could be partners. Wouldn't that be fun?" he snapped. Without another word, the taller reploid turned around and walked the other way down the hall. Axl sighed and continued on to the balcony, where the outline of a petite female Hunter could be seen silhouetted in the moonlight. Axl walked out onto the balcony and leaned next to her.
"Hey, Selene. What are you doing out here?" he asked. She didn't reply; her attention was given completely to the wasteland surrounding Maverick Hunter HQ and the distant city beyond. She had a lifeless look in her eyes that Axl found unsettling.
"I always feel like a part of me is missing when I'm not near him," she finally spoke up.
"You mean Endymion? You two were designed to be a team, so I'm not surprised," Axl replied.
"He's all the way on the first floor, still in the holo room."
"If being separated makes you feel that way, then why aren't you ever together?"
"I said it feels like a part of me is missing. I never said I enjoyed his company."
"He is kind of..." Axl began, chuckling as he fished for the right adjective to describe Endymion.
"Scary. He's kind of scary," she offered.
"Maybe a little."
"It's not my fault. I've tried my best to get him to open up. I guess...he just wasn't programmed like that," Selene whispered softly. Axl turned around and leaned against the balcony railing.
"They say reploids have free will, right?"
"Yeah."
"That's what makes us different from robots."
"Among other things," Selene mused, staring at her unpainted fingernails. The only differences between her fingers and a human's had to be seen through a microscope.
"Yeah. Our skin, our organs, everything. We could probably pass for human if we tried."
"Where are you going with this, Axl?" Selene asked, turning toward him for the first time.
"We're supposed to be just like humans, but there's a catch. We're not born. We're made."
"Isn't that the same thing, O Wise One?"
"Nope. Totally different, Grasshopper. When a human is born, nobody knows how they'll turn out. You know, what they'll be good at, how they'll act. But us..."
"We're designed," Selene finished, as Axl's train of thought became clear to her. "Usually for a specific purpose."
"Like Endy."
"But after we're made, we can choose to do whatever we want with our lives. That's free will."
"It doesn't seem like it to me," Axl said. "They can design us so that we don't really have a choice."
"But Axl, if we didn't possess free will, then we couldn't even think about something as complicated as what we're talking about now. We can question our programming, and if we want to, we can change it."
"You and Endy were designed to be Maverick Hunters. Do you ever question that?"
Selene sighed, gazing up at the moon. "No. I like what I do, though. I want to protect people, and anything else just seems like a waste of my abilities."
"That sounds like a complicated way of saying you don't have a choice."
"Axl!" Selene huffed, shoving him in exasperation. "You just think everyone's plotting against you. If we can't trust our creators, who can we trust?"
"Jeez, have you got it backwards, girlie." Axl and Selene exchanged dismayed glances before turning around in unison to see a tall, gaunt Maverick Hunter in an ebony-on-orange uniform. He was leaning against the doorway with an unsettling grin on his face. "They're the last ones you should trust."
"Malakai..." Axl said slowly. "The 9th barracks are a few floors down. Forget the elevator number again?"
"Nope. I thought I could squeeze in some pestering before I turned in for the night, so here I am, ready to disrupt this romantic philosophic debate of yours."
"I'd rather not hear what you have to say about free will," Selene said.
"Believe me. I could fill volumes, doll face."
"I'll take your word for it," she groaned, pushing off of the balcony railing and squeezing past Malakai.
"Hey, Selene..." Axl protested, about to follow her until Malakai stepped in his way and shoved him back. He put on a serious expression.
"I'm sorry, sir. You're gonna hafta show some ID to get in."
"Go to hell, Malakai." Malakai dropped the bouncer impression and grinned.
"You make it so easy, Axl," he said. The young reploid maintained his glare.
"Just let me through," he said.
"Why? You're not getting any from the little lady tonight," Malakai pointed out. "Or...probably ever."
"I don't care. Get out of the way, or I'll show you some of the moves Zero's been teaching me," Axl said, cheeks glowing uncontrollably.
"What are you gonna do, die on me? That'd be a neat trick."
Axl lunged forward, fist cocked. He stopped when he noticed that Malakai hadn't even flinched, and had instead broken into a fit of condescending laughter.
"Show some respect," Axl spat, lowering his arm. He elbowed the tall Hunter in the ribs as he shoved past him. The 9th Division Hunter merely continued to laugh
"Easy there, tough guy. You'll hurt yourself," Malakai called, and the young Hunter decided to start walking faster down the corridor. He felt Malakai following behind him until he passed the elevator, then the Hunter stopped and headed down to the 9th Division's quarters. When Axl reached his room, Selene was leaning against the door waiting for him.
"Did he hurt you?" she asked him. Axl chuckled.
"Malakai couldn't hurt me if he tried," he replied, though he knew that she knew he was bluffing.
"Well, I just waited so I could say goodnight. And to call the Lifesavers if I had to."
"Thanks," he said with a twist of sarcasm.
"Goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? What's tomorrow?" Axl knew instantly that he had forgotten something important, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what it was. Selene merely giggled. Out of the moonlight, she seemed to have come alive again, and the distance in her stare had disappeared.
"Tomorrow is the 17th's day off! You said you'd take me into the city, don't you remember that?" At the reminder, Axl remembered telling her before they left for their mission. Plenty of things had shoved that thought to the back of his mind.
"Oh yeah! I remember now," he said. Selene gave him a fake angry glare.
"I should get my brother to knock some sense into you. You were the one that offered!" Her sternness melted into another giggle. " Just promise you won't forget again, okay?" Axl nodded.
"I promise."
She smiled and blew him a kiss. "I enjoyed our romantic philosophic debate. Let's pick it up again later, alright?" As she turned around, Axl felt the color rise in his cheeks once again.
"Okay. Goodnight, Selene," he told her. She opened the door next to his and walked inside. He lingered a moment longer before walking into his own room and retiring for the night.
Marx curled up in the corner of the observation room, taking note of his dismal accommodations. It was more of a prison cell than anything else. The only furnishings in the dim room were a regen capsule and a primitive wooden desk. There were no windows, and no openings in the door or walls. He wondered what the Hunters normally used the room for, since their policy always seemed to be shoot first and ask questions never. It did not occur to him that, if he were right about the Maverick Hunters, he would have gotten a bullet in his head rather than the privilege of spending a night in this prison cell.
The reploid mercenary felt naked without his combat armor; though he was wearing a generic uniform, it wouldn't give him any defense against his captors if they decided to come back. Especially Zero. There was something wicked inside that Maverick Hunter, though he didn't think anybody else saw it. He frantically looked for something to use as a weapon, but he found nothing. The Hunters were thorough. He got up slowly, intending to use the regen capsule.
He stopped himself. What if they had booby trapped it? Marx shook his head. Now he was just being paranoid. What could the hunters gain from killing him? Other than sadistic pleasure, he thought to himself.
But what could they gain by keeping me alive? If Zero was telling the truth about operating outside of the law – and, given Marx's brief but eye-opening experience with the law, he found the idea easy to believe – then they could just kill him and be done with it. They said they wanted his help finding Vulcan Stinger, but he already knew they wouldn't like what he had to tell them.
Sorry guys, just a paid flunkie too stubborn to give in to the Sigma Virus. Could you please let me out of the cell and maybe get me a taxi back to the city? They would love that.
Sighing in resignation, he stepped up to the capsule and slid the hatch open. Looking around at his surroundings once more, he stepped into the cylinder. Welcome to your new home, Marx, he thought.
Seeing as how he was still alive, Marx considered it safe to press the button and resign himself to shutdown.
Zero lay back in his regen capsule, mulling over the thoughts spinning in his head. He didn't know why he was being so protective of Marx. The mercenary was a total stranger, and a lewd one at that. Still, Zero scared off his own trainee for him. Marx had even shot him, and he didn't feel any real need for retribution. Not since the red haze passed over him, but that was a mercifully brief episode. It had to be the feeling of nostalgia he got from the reploid. Who did he resemble, and more importantly, why did Zero care so much? He searched his memory, but nothing came to him.
A loud thump jarred the reclining Hunter out of his past, and he craned his head to watch as the past came to life before his eyes. Iris stood in his blackened room, pressing a blood-soaked hand against the glass of his capsule. In the dim light beyond, Zero could see her vacant face yawning at him, letting strings of blood hang from her gouged lips. They dripped from her chin and pattered against her chest, running down her armor until they fed into the huge gash cleaving open her abdomen. She raised her other hand and thumped it against the glass as well, leaning forward and allowing all the blood pooling in her mouth to burst out and splatter across his capsule. Zero rolled over until all he could see was the blank gray wall of the cylinder.
"Oh, come on," he murmured. "You didn't bleed that much."
He could still hear the apparition retching and banging on his capsule up until the moment the auto-shutdown program kicked in, and then the nightmares began.
End of chapter 3